Weeks and weeks went by. I stayed at home with Mom all the while, but I felt sadder and sadder as the weeks went on. Rain fell, winds blew, the sun shined. Every day I got up, had some breakfast, and maybe exercised with my Pokémon. My Pokémon were all I had left. Maybe a few plaques and a couple of badges and some memories long gone, but nothing more. Mom usually cleaned around the house and went to go work at her job (I forgot to mention that she works at the Jubilife TV) which left me hanging around in Twinleaf Town. I saw Barry often, and we went to the lake in the afternoon just to chat. Around the area, like Sandgem Town, a new girl named Dawn moved in, and she was a new trainer. I got to know her, showed her how to catch Pokemon, how to fight, all the basics. Barry met her when we all met at the lake one day, and we sort of formed a group. A group of friends. A small group, but still a group. When it was just me and Barry, we were a group. With Dawn, our group got bigger.
I was still feeling a bit depressed, but I soon accepted the fact that I would never avenge my father. It always stuck with me, but I accepted my life as it was and always would be. After all, with my group of friends, I wouldn't be so lonely. I accepted my group of friends and that I would go on living a normal life. Until one night...
"Oh, you're going to bed early?" asked Mom.
"Yeah, I'm rather tired."
"Okay then. I guess everyone needs their rest-yaaaaaaaaaawwwwn... I guess I need my rest as well. Good night, Vincent."
"Goodnight, mom." I walked upstairs and did my usual routine. I climbed into bed and lay in bed, staring at the ceiling and waiting to drift off.
I don't remember what woke me. I was having a rather perculiar dream about a Charizard by the name of Jerry. He said something like, "I am your father." like Darth Vader or something. He said that he was a spirit and had been watching over me. He told me to go to the lake when I woke up and that he would wait for me there. Then he disappeared. As if on cue, I instantly woke up. I sat upright in my bed and tried to remember the dream I just had. When I tried to remember it, it started to slip away, but then all of a sudden, it hit me like a heavy freight train. I was to go to the lake and meet my father there. I sat there in my room, thinking. How could I meet my father, the Great Charizard, if he was dead and gone? Was he maybe a spirit? I ruled that option out and looked for other possibilities and realized that I was wasting my time. I plopped back down in bed.
...
Something wasn't quite right though. How could I have a dream about my father if I fell asleep not thinking about him? And why would he tell me in the dream to go to the lake to meet him there? He was dead! It was impossible! Or was it? I couldn't decide what it meant and ultimately just decided to go back to sleep. I checked the clock. It said 1:12 a.m. Why would I wake up to such a weird dream in the middle of the night? I just turned over and went back to sleep.
...
...or at least, tried to go back to sleep.
...
"God dammit."
Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore, so I just got dressed, tiptoed as quietly as I could downstairs, and exited the house. Twinleaf Town was silent. Not quiet, absolutely silent. Not a sound could be heard. It was rather eerie and gave me the chills even though whatever snuck up on me would die in two seconds. If a ghost tried to sneak up on me, I would instantly evapor- ah, that's besides the point. Let's just say that no matter how strong a person is, they always have fear in them. I mean, it was 1:12 in the morning, no one else was around, it was quiet as hell, and also very dark, so how could anyone not be scared if they were by themself? I called out Pikachu to keep me company and we walked down to Lake Verity.
Lake Verity was as silent as Route 201 was, so I saw no point in traveling there. However, I was curious to see if anything would appear. I walked to my father's grave and waited for a bit. I looked up and saw many stars. If stars represented those who had died, I bet my father was up there somewhere.
"SNORK! What the hell-" I had dozed off while waiting in front of my father's grave, but somehow, a ball of fire appeared in front of the grave.
It wasn't an ordinary ball of flame. It was blue fire.
I walked over to the grave. Pikachu woke up as well and jumped onto my shoulder. I slowly approached the fire and then the most impossible thing happened.
"Touch the ball of flame," said the fire. I withdrew Pikachu first and then reached out and tentatively touched the fire. It was nice and warm. When nothing happened, I put my hands around the fire. It felt rather odd, holding the fire. It didn't burn me. It just felt... different. Then all of a sudden, then ball exploded into a bonfire and cloaked the area in blue flames. I opened my eyes to see what was happening, but I couldn't see much. The fire storm kept raging until it finally cleared away into a brilliant swirl. I opened my eyes and I saw...
...him. The Charizard from my dream.
My father.
I walked up to him. He was sorta meditating. This was the first time I could actually see what my dad looked like!
"Dad?"
"Hm? Oh, it's you! My son, Vincent, all grown up! How are you? How old are you? What happened to your arm?"
"Dad, that can wait until later. I would like to ask some questions first. First of all, how the heck did you get here?"
"Yes, I had a feeling you'd ask that." He looked very serious, like I was. "I traveled here from the spirit world. As of now, I am a spirit. I was able to communicate with you in the dream you had telepathically."
"Wait, you're psychic? What am I thinking about?"
"You're depressed because you want to get stronger, but no one in all of the Pokémon Regions can make you stronger. I know how that feels."
"How?"
"When I first started training in the Pokémon Regions, I seeked out every trainer and challenged them all. But I soon realized that I wouldn't find challenge here. So I made something happen. I went in search of new lands to find challenge. And I did, eventually. I found a town with people like us living there, except they had something that we don't utilize: Magic Power. So I found a place in that town where those magic users gather and train to become strong. It was called a guild and I learned that there were many other guilds in that land. Some were evil, some were good. I learned new kinds of magic in the guild, hence my psychic powers."
"So your point is what?"
"My point is, if you want something bad enough, you'll find a way to make it happen. I can guarantee that."
"I have a few questions, though. How did you die? Who killed you?"
"I was basically tortured to death. I was killed by a group of bad guys that I had been investigating. I tried to get rid of all evil from the world, and during my mission, I stumbled across a gang of bad guys from the Pokémon Regions. They were from a region far away from here called Alola. Their name was Team Skull. But they weren't like any of the other teams, like Rocket, or Aqua or Magma, they utilized magic power too. Even the weakest of them were pretty damn strong. I never knew how they were able to become so strong, but I heard they were once harmless. That is until I found out the secret behind their immense power. Around this time, I met your mother. She was living in Kanto at the time and we got married. Then you were born, and I had to keep on fighting for the Charizard Legion. One day, I heard that most of the legion had been wiped out by Team Skull. Frustrated, I tracked them down and went after them. Their whereabouts was around Kanto and I basically declared war against Team Skull. I went after the executives of Team Skull, and that's how it all ended. They tracked down the location of your mother and you, and they chased us. I was brutally tortured and killed. I told your mother to escape to the north, to Sinnoh, which is here. I had set a spell around Twinleaf Town beforehand, just in case something like that ever happened. I told your mother to stay in Twinleaf Town and not leave until Team Skull's wrath subsided."
"Wow. That's a lot. But..." I suddenly got very serious. "Mom let me become a trainer a few years ago, and she told me the truth of how you died. All the previous years, she told me that died in a car crash. A white lie, obviously. I always knew that something was suspicious. But when she told me, I swore that I would train my hardest and become the strongest ever to avenge you. But then I went through what you went through, and now here I am and I don't know what to do."
Dad thought for a moment. He looked as if he'd forgotten something. He then turned to me.
"You may become strong enough, stronger than me possibly, if you work at it. I believe that you can surpass me and with the strength you have, you can possibly defeat Team Skull. Their massacre ended long ago, but they are still searching for Charizards from the Charizard Legion. I never found out who the leader of them all was, but if you train hard enough, then you could track them down and defeat them."
"Yeah. I guess so-"
"No! Don't guess! Know that you will do it!"
"But dad, what will happen to your spirit when I'm finished talking to you? Are you going to go back to the spirit world? I don't want you to go back. Though I've never known you, I miss you..." I clenched my fists. "Thanks to evil in this world, I've never known you. I wish... I wish that I could bring you back to life."
"Oh! That's what I was forgetting!"
"Huh...?"
"Here." Dad tossed me a stone. It looked like a regular old stone that could fit in my palm, roughly half the size of a Pokéball. "That is a Resurrection Stone. I had it with me in the spirit world. Based on the name, it does just that; it resurrects a once-living being. But in order to do that, you must absorb the soul of an immensely strong magic user."
"This magic... what is it?"
"Well, that's complicated to explain... I have an idea, though. You should follow my steps and travel to the land that I told you about. You'll be able to learn about magic there."
"That's great and all, but how do I get there exactly?"
Dad concentrated for a moment, and then suddenly, a map appeared in his hands.
"Wha...? How...?"
"It's a type of magic called Dimension Magic. With it, you can destroy matter, not normally possible according to the Law of Conservation of Matter and send it to a dimension non-accesible to humans. Whatever matter you destroy travels to that dimension and stays there until you Summon it again. Or you can just destroy matter from existence straight up. Dimension Magic also has other uses, but I'll leave that to you to find out."
"Wait, what are you talking about- ah! What's happening to me?" All of a sudden, I rose up off the ground and started glowing.
"I now bestow upon you the power of Dimension Magic." said dad in a mighty voice. All of a sudden, I could feel a massive amount of energy flowing through my bones. But it was different energy than I used to.
This was the power of Magic Energy.
The light around me blew off in a whirlwind and I was left standing there alone. Dad's spirit was no longer there. But his voice echoed:
"Give it your all. You can do it, my son. See you on the flipside, meaning, when you resurrect me."
"I will, dad. I'll avenge you. I swear on my life that I will do everything in my power to avenge you even if I can't bring you back."
"One more thing: You have the power within you." And with that, he disappeared.
I stood there confused, but I kept that in the back of my mind anyway.
I started walking back to Twinleaf Town. I was filled with a new kind of happiness. I wasn't depressed anymore. I was happy, knowing that I was going to, after all avenge my father and possibly resurrect him.
My last thought before drifting off was that there was still hope.
